You’ve just been given an iDevice: a magical entity that bestows the gift of more apps than you can fathom. We’ll help you make sense of it all with some great apps, tips, and tricks for your shiny new Apple toy.

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This post was updated in December 2015.

Before you dive in, here are a few things you should do with your new iDevice first:

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Update to the Lastest Version of iOS: There’s a decent chance your new iDevice isn’t running the latest version of iOS, even if it’s just a very minor upgrade that’s necessary. Before you sync for the first time, check for updates in iTunes or in your iDevice’s Settings app. If there’s an update available, iTunes (or your phone) should tell you automatically but it’s always good to double check. Note: If you plan to jailbreak, hold off on updating—the latest update may not be jailbreakable!

Get to Know iOS 9: Once you’ve updated, you ought to know what you’re in for. We can teach you everything you need to know. Our guide features a rundown of new features, in-depth looks at how to use the most popular ones, and answers to common questions about the mobile operating system.

Sign Up For Free Find My iPhone: You don’t need to pay to use Apple’s great Find My iPhone app. Just head to Settings > iCloud and turn Find My iPhone on. You’ll need to create an iCloud account to get it to work, but you will not have to pay for it. Once you’re all set up, you’ll be able to find your lost or stolen iPhone in a snap.

Organize Your Home Screen - When you start downloading a bunch of apps, your home screen is going to get cluttered very quickly. Stay ahead of the game and start organizing. As you download apps it’ll be easier to keep track of where every app is and will be stored. Check out these reader tips for some ideas.

Turn Your Smartphone Camera into a Pocketable Photographic Memory:Several apps exist to help you remember the many things you’d otherwise forget, but perhaps none are quite as useful and efficient as your camera. Typing takes time. napping a photo only takes a moment, and there are so many ways you can remind yourself better with nothing but a picture.

How to Turn Your Phone Into a Mind-Reading Personal Assistant:Smartphones, despite their name, are actually pretty dumb. They only do what you tell them to, and constantly inputting information can get tedious. However, with a few apps, you can not only make your phone smarter, but turn it into a mind-reading personal assistant that lets you know of important information as you need it: like traffic for your commute, a reminder to pick up milk as you pass the grocery store, and even automatic text messages to your friends when you’re driving to meet them. Here’s how to do it.

How to Take Great Holiday Photos with Your iPhone: Holidays are the perfect time to capture magic moments with friends and family and take the time get creative with your photography. Here are some simple tips to get the best photos from your iPhone.

How to Make Music in GarageBand with iOS: Want to lay down some tracks but all you’ve got is your iOS device and a Mac? With an OpenSound Control (OSC) app on your iPhone and server on your Mac you can record a virtual keyboard over Wi-Fi.

Fix Common Problems

How to Stop Your Smartphone from Secretly Wasting Data in the Background: Unlimited data plans are an endangered species nowadays, so most of us have to watch our limits in order to avoid excess charges on our bill. That’s easy enough when we know how much cellular data we’re using on our smartphones, but becomes problematic when our smartphones eat up our precious megabytes in the background. This doesn’t just happen on Android, but iPhone, too. Here’s how to stop it.

How to Copy Music from Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to Your Computer for Free: Apple, true to form, makes it simple to put media and files on your iDevice but the road really only goes one way. It can be pretty difficult to copy anything (or everything) back to your computer without a lot of trouble and sacrifice, but it’s even harder to find a good, free solution to that problem amongst the many choices available. You could spend the better part of your holiday sifting through your options, or you could just read this guide instead.

How to Open Compressed Files on Your iOS Device: iOS does pretty well with handling various file types, but when it comes to compressed files you run into problems. Fortunately, with the aid of a file browsing app you’ll be able to view compressed files easily.

Tap Siri’s Speech Bubble to Correct Its Mistakes: Siri is a bit frustrating when it doesn’t understand you correctly. If Siri doesn’t get it right the first time, you’re stuck repeating yourself into your phone and looking like a fool. However, as Redditor ThatIsPrettyGood points out, you can correct Siri by tapping the speech bubble and editing it.